Writer David Mamet has been an significant force in actor Joe Mantegna's career. When Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross was adapted into Broadway, Mantegna was cast in the role of salesman Ricky Roma, and his portrayal earned him a Tony Award.  Now, as the latest cast member of CBS' Criminal Minds, Mantegna says that his character was molded after the ones that have been featured in the works of Mamet.

“David very often instilled in his characters the idea of what he described as ‘the excellent man,'” Mantegna told the Chicago Tribune's The Watcher.  “Everyone falls short of it, but the excellent man is really just trying do to the best he can under the circumstances, that's all.  That's all any of us can hope to do.  When we were talking about the character, somehow that came to my mind.”

On Criminal Minds, Joe Mantegna plays David Rossi, who returns to the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit from his early retirement.  The character is Mantegna's tribute to a Los Angeles police officer who testified in the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995.

Mantegna, the voice behind gangster Fat Tony on The Simpsons, is also the one who blessed his character with an Italian name.

“I'm not one of the guys who says, ‘Why do you pick on Italian-Americans by making them gangsters?' Well, a lot of them were.  I can accept that,” he said.  “But on the other hand, on TV and in the movies, if you have a last name that ends in a vowel, you're a gangster.  And every other noble character's name is Smith or Johnson.”

Joe Mantegna, 59, joined Criminal Minds following the departure of the show's lead actor, Mandy Patinkin.  Mantegna said he didn't have a hard time fitting in, as many of the crew members were from Joan of Arcadia, a family drama wherein he starred as Will Girardi for two seasons.

“It was like old-home week in that respect, and then to meet [executive producer] Ed Bernero, an Italian-American former cop from Chicago — I couldn't have cloned a better human being to be my go-to guy,” Mantegna said.

Fans of the show have also adapted well to the change.  Mantegna's first episode, which aired on Wednesday, October 31, earned a 9.4 rating and a 15 share, making Criminal Minds that highest-rated show of the night.


-Lisa Claustro, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Chicago Tribune
(Image Courtesy of CBS)